


Ship Repairs

by Wreybies



Category: The Expanse (TV), The Expanse Series - James S. A. Corey
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Men Crying, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Size Kink, the eXXXpanse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-04-06 23:17:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14067732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wreybies/pseuds/Wreybies
Summary: Amos, Naomi, and Holden each make space for a new configuration in their relationship.





	1. Squaring Up

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ifinkufreaky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ifinkufreaky/gifts).



> This is kind of a cross between the show and the books, but mostly book version. Happens during Caliban's War. Defo book Amos, physically. The story departs from canon after they get the protomolecule monster out of the Roci's hold and are on their way to Tycho.
> 
> Inspired by the idea of needing to fix things in "Am I the Captain?" by legitimate_salvage (infinkufreaky).

  **Amos**

   Amos's way of fidgeting was to remain unnaturally still. Just now he was a marble statue of immobile fidgetry. Naomi had read him the riot act for beating that kid with a can of chicken and things were still raw between them.What he wanted to say felt like either the right thing to do for everyone, or the last straw.No way to know but to ask. 

   Naomi lifted her eyebrows to prompt him to speak.

   "I gotta' make something right with Holden, but the only way I know how would maybe hurt you.But if you know and say its okay, then maybe it's okay." He let his eyes go unfocused. It was something he did when engaging others and had no idea how they would respond."Don't feel like you have to say yes.If it's no, it's no, but..."

   "What _is_ it Amos?"Her voice still carried an edge of annoyance.

 "I think the Cap was trying to tell me something earlier, when we were dealing with our 'guest', and I missed it.About him and me and I think it's something important - to the Captain.I gotta' let him know that I get it, but you know I'm no good with words.Not for stuff like this.All I got are these."He held up his large, square hands.

   "You want to punch him too?"Naomi asked.Yeah, he walked into that one.

   "No."Amos stared at the floor. “Not unless he’s into that. Is he?”

   Naomi's eyes squinted minutely."Wait, are you asking me what I think..."

   "Yeah.That's what I'm asking."

   Naomi chewed her lower lip.Her hand went up to her hair, her shield in times of confusion and angst. 

   "It's stupid.  Just forget that I asked."Amos turned his blocky frame to leave.Naomi's hand, delicate and negligible against the breadth if his shoulder stopped him.

   "How does this fix anything between you and him?"He heard the effort now in her voice, the conscious control. 

   Amos shrugged his massive shoulders almost imperceptibly."Don't know.Just have a feeling it might go that way.I'm probably wrong, but if I'm not..."

   Naomi scanned his impassive face.  "Okay.Go make it right."Something inside of her released and the tension left her face."Don't break him."

   A goofy grin slowly materialized, and Amos would have hugged her if he had the slightest idea how.Instead, he gave a cocky salute from his brow with two fingers."Copy, that."  


   Amos knew every inch of the Roci at this point, but the passageway to Holden's bunk felt longer than the ship could possibly account for. 

_I watched you die_.   Holden’s words echoed in his head. Amos wondered what went on in other people's heads.Not bad people.Bad people were simple to understand.They always boil down to wanting something or someone that ain't theirs.Good people were a mess.Sometimes they wanted what wasn't theirs.Sometimes they didn't want what they already had.  Usually, they had no idea.  Holden was that kind of a mess.So complicated.

_At the time, what I_ ** _knew_** _was that you'd just been shot in the head and killed_.Amos tried to see it through Holden's eyes again.Yeah, it did look like that, but it wasn't.But even when it wasn't, Holden kept going like it was.

_This little family we have.One fuckup, and something irreplaceable gets lost_.Space is filled with big dumb mechanics.You can pick one up at any port.But Amos understood family.Naomi was family.That resonated. 

   Amos stopped and stood the way only he could.You can't make schematics for people.You can't follow their thoughts like a power line or air shaft.You can't pause them like software to see why it does what it does.You can only take what they say and hope it means what they meant. 

   Amos loved Naomi.He knew that. 

   Naomi loved Holden.She said so. 

_When I thought you were dead, it knocked all the wind out of me..._ Holden only says shit in a direct way when he's trying to start wars.Was that Holden saying he loved Amos? 

_Here goes nothing_.Amos tapped the door. 

   Ten minutes passed talking about ship's stores and water supply and how much the door to the hold was going to cost.Holden was his usual confusing self, plus a little loopy on pain meds for his knee. He never knew what to do with his arms.On the bed.Crossed in front of him.Cracking his knuckles.They were everywhere.It both bothered and fascinated Amos.Good thing he was the Captain because someone like Holden could never be a mechanic.

   "Okay.We'll get it figured out.The door's gonna' be a pain, but I think we can manage it.Anything else?"Holden said.

   Amos's programming paused and he said nothing. 

   Holden waited.The thing he had tried to express to Amos hung heavy in the air between them. 

   "How come you get to die, but not me?"Amos finally asked.

   "What?" Holden's face screwed up into a curl of confusion.

   "You were ready to get crushed by those crates in a high-g burn just to get that thing off the ship.You asked me not to get myself killed doing it.Why do you get to die and not me?"

   "I didn't want to die.I _don't_ want to die," said Holden.

   "You know what the shitty part about being a hero is?You think you're the only one in control.You make decisions for other people, and you don't ask them, you just tell them." _Wow_.Even to Amos, this was clearly not the right trajectory.

   Amos carefully switched gears.  "I heard what you said to me."

   "When?"

   "About me getting shot and you thought I was dead.I heard you."

   "Yeah, I..."

   Amos grabbed Holden's hand in both of his own."You talk a lot, but you don't always listen, Jim.I _heard_ you." 

   They held hands and eyes while moments passed.This didn't bother Amos.He could wait until whatever crazy code in Holden's head finally registered, but it clearly bothered Holden who wasn't accustomed to being restrained, even in this small way. 

   Holden stopped pulling his arm away and something happened to his mouth.It trembled.He swallowed hard before saying, "Okay.You heard me."

   And then he fell apart. 

   This _did_ make Amos uncomfortable.Crying, what a weird thing.If a ship did this it would tumble ass over teakettle and never be found.Amos took Holden into his arms, hoping to keep him somewhere in an accessible orbit.He shook and sobbed.Yeah, this was bound to happen.People - regular people - can't have this much shit come at them without glitching.This was about a lot of things that Amos didn't pretend to understand, but he understood being held until it ran its course.Strong hands were good for this.He held Holden tightly and Holden responded in kind. 

   When he was calm again, Amos kissed him gently on the forehead.Their embrace was no longer the fierce thing Jim had needed to squeeze out the pain he was holding. 

   "Better?" Amos asked.

   "Better," said Jim, quietly into Amos's shoulder.

   "How's that knee feel?" 

   "Knee?What knee?I'm high as fuck right now.I'm an octopus.All I have are tentacles.No knees." 

   Amos laughed softly.Those Martians didn't skimp on the good stuff in their medical bays.It occurred to him that whatever he thought might happen probably shouldn't with Holden in this state. 

   "I'm gonna' go now."He tried to untangle himself from Holden.Holden resisted.

   "You can stay if you want.Never realized how big you really are," Holden replied.He pulled back and gave Amos a funny look."Are you trying to be a gentleman?"

   "Well, I don't often get accused of that, but yeah.Naomi ain't too happy with me right now and I get why.She told me not to break you."

   "She told you..So she knows you came down here to talk to me and whatever else and all that?"Yeah, Jim did sound pretty high. 

   "She does, _and whatever else and all that_." 

   "And she was okay with it?"

   "I don't know if _okay_ is the word I would use, but...yeah.She must really love us, Jim."Amos had a moment of clarity, of understanding why this crazy little family was so complicated and messy.It was the _us_ of their love, not the _you_ , not the _me_ , not the _him_ , not the _her_.The _us_.They needed each other desperately.They did and said crazy things because they were scared of losing one another. _One fuckup, and something irreplaceable gets lost_.He got it now.He understood how and why they needed him, this big, dumb mechanic.He understood why Naomi was so upset over beating the kid with the chicken.It clicked like a puzzle piece that finished a picture.

    _Fuck it_.

He took Holden's head in his big hands and kissed him.Holden didn't pull back, he pressed forward.It wasn't sex, it was love.And even when it finally became sex - hands in places typically forbidden, shame left at the door as a useless hinderance, clothing on the floor, Jim laughing to hide his shock at the size of Amos's cock, making dumb jokes about having to check himself into Tycho Station for a refit after Amos was done with him, the sharp, hard release deep within Jim when Amos came, holding each other as tightly as when Jim had been crying, when they both cried a little more, Amos still sunk to the hilt, Jim refusing to let him go - even then it wasn't sex, it was love.

   What a crazy thing.

* * *

  **Jim**

   Jim hobbled on his crutch toward the mess hall.After last night he could see another trip to the medical bay to have his knee and a few other things checked out.

   Naomi sat cradling a hot tea.He quietly made himself a coffee and sat across from her.The silence stretched.

   "Naomi, I need..."

   She held up her hand.  "You don't need to say anything.I told him to go to you.Whatever happened is between you and Amos." 

   Jim noticed that she didn't reach for her hair, didn't try to hide.How long had she been here waiting for this conversation?

   "Are we okay?"Jim asked.

   "We're okay, Jim." 


	2. The Wrench

** Jim **

Even through the cloud of medical bay goodies, Holden could feel the tension in Amos.He’d learned to read his silences as loudly as other people’s angry shouts.

"Okay.We'll get it figured out.The door's gonna' be a pain, but I think we can manage it.Anything else?"Holden asked, opening the way for whatever was eating Amos, whatever brought him here that had nothing to do with supplies or water or the ruined door to the hold.

Amos had one of those moments where it looked like he just switched off.Holden knew this was Amos running a system’s check somewhere in the back of that big head of his.Nothing to do but wait.

"How come you get to die, but not me?"Amos finally asked.

"What?" Damned drugs.He knew what Amos meant.He knew at some point Amos would come back to square this with him.But all that came out was _what_?

"You were ready to get crushed by those crates in a high-g burn just to get that thing off the ship.You asked me not to get myself killed doing it.Why do you get to die and not me?"

  "I didn't want to die.I  _don't_  want to die," said Holden.He didn’t want _anyone_ to die.He wanted to wrap his arms around the whole solar system and save every last person.Maybe not the ones responsible for that thing on the ship, but everyone else.Most of all he wanted his crew to be with him forever.You don’t grow up in a family like Holden’s and not want people around you.You don’t live that life and not need interaction and the assurance of the pack.Even when you pretended like you didn’t want it or need it, you were lying and you knew it.You _did_ want it.You _did_ need it.You got angry with yourself for chasing it, but it didn’t stop you from chasing it. 

"You know what the shitty part about being a hero is?You think you're the only one in control.You make decisions for other people, and you don't ask them, you just tell them."That hurt.Naomi had said almost those exact words and Amos wasn’t one for repeating people.He came up with that all on his own.Something started pushing up against Holden’s diaphragm.

"I heard what you said to me."

"When?" _God, Amos, don’t do this now.Not now_.Holden felt only loosely put together because of the meds and the _something_ pushing on his diaphragm pushed harder, closing his throat. 

"About me getting shot and you thought I was dead.I heard you."

It played in Holden’s head like bad porn.It was offensive because it was cheap.Amos didn’t deserve that death.Not like that.Not like it was nothing, an afterthought.Whatever was pushing at his throat pulled instead.If he gave into it there would be no going back.It would take him. 

"Yeah, I..." 

"You talk a lot, but you don't always listen, Jim.I  _heard_  you."Amos’s hands were like baseball mitts.Like warm vice clamps.Holden tried to pull free, to escape where this was going, but Amos could have held him in place with just a finger.His warm callused hands were like God’s hands.Scary and beautiful at the same time.His eyes were piercing.They burned through him.Amos was going to have his way no matter what. 

"Okay.You _heard_ me."It played on a loop.Amos’s head cracked backward and blood sprayed and he was dead.On the floor, his face smashed into the deck.He was dead and a part of Holden had died too. 

He felt his mouth quiver and his jaw shake.The airlocks were opening and the hard vacuum of space was on him.The air punched out of him and his chest flattened into a terrible knot.Amos remained still, watching him.Holden didn't care.He wanted to, but he couldn’t.The next breath in was a racked, sobbing ululation of all his anger and his hurt and his pissed off and most all the indignation, the affront that someone would harm his family so thoughtlessly, like it didn’t matter, like it was shit. _It’s my fucking family!How fucking dare you!_

And there was self-pity, and the shame that came with it.It was hard enough when your family was made of such strong-willed people.If you were going to be the dad, you had to be the _dad_.Solid, unswerving, resilient.Who was going to hold him when he didn’t have a clue what to do, which was more often than anyone suspected. 

Amos’s arms came around him like huge waldos.They pulled him in and he let it happen because he wanted it and because there wasn’t much choice.Amos was a wall of pliant, warm steel.Holden clung to him and felt like a child in more ways than one.The harder he held Amos, the harder Amos held back.He wailed into the man’s chest.He sobbed.He stopped caring that he sounded like a petulant little boy.He wanted someone to hold him tight, and someone was. 

And it came and it came and it came.And when it was done, something changed in the nature of Amos’s arms and chest.Something softened and the wall of pliant steel and irresistible waldos that had restrained him against self-harm, became a man again.Holden was still crying, but it wasn’t the wild vacuum of space trying to suck him away.It was just crying.And he settled into Amos.And Amos settled into him.Holden had forgotten what it was to have a man hug him like this.He’d forgotten how comforting it was.He’d forgotten the lessons taught to him by his fathers.Men needed the love of other men to be healthy.Without it they became detached from their emotional selves. 

Amos kissed him on the forehead and the gesture was so perfect, so much like he remembered as a boy.But Amos wasn’t any of his fathers.The mild stirring in his loins was okay.Right?Yeah, that was okay.With the emotional storm retreating against the horizon, the cloud of euphoria returned, at least in part from the meds in his system, but mostly from the release, from the decongestion of his heart. 

"Better?" Amos asked.

"Better.” _Thank you.I love you_. 

   "How's that knee feel?"

"Knee?What knee?I'm high as fuck right now.I'm an octopus.All I have are tentacles.No knees." _And one of my tentacles is unusually alert_.

"I'm gonna' go now."Amos tried to get up but Holden clung to him. _Not yet.Don’t go yet_.

"You can stay if you want.Never realized how big you really are.” Amos relented.He let himself be drawn to the bed.Holden slipped his bad leg between Amos’s legs and curled closer against him.That had to be a wrench in the man’s coveralls.It had to be.No way it was anything other.It occurred to Holden that saying he was going to leave was Amos trying to be responsible."Are you trying to be a gentleman?"

   "Well, I don't often get accused of that, but yeah.Naomi ain't too happy with me right now and I get why.She told me not to break you."

   "She told you.. So she knows you came down here to talk to me and whatever else and all that?”

   "She does,  _and whatever else and all that_."  Snarky fucker.

   "And she was okay with it?"

"I don't know if  _okay_  is the word I would use, but... yeah.She must really love us, Jim."

Yeah, she must.Jim knew what he wanted and the obvious _no_ in the equation had just been removed, or at least put into question.They lay in the bunk, looking into one another’s eyes.Holden had no idea what was ticking inside of Amos’s head, but _something_ was.The way his eyes unfocused and snapped back.He was making connections.Then those great mitt hands were wrapped around Holden’s head and the kiss that came was slow and deep and methodical.He prayed Amos had read Naomi correctly, hadn’t missed a sarcastic tone.But Naomi knew Amos intrinsically, his straight, cards up on the table, flat manner off communication, devoid of guile or subtext.If she told him it was okay, then it was okay, and he accepted it from her through Amos. 

And _that_ turned up the flame. 

Holden tried to get his shirt off but in this position it was impossible, not with his leg compromised.Amos read the cue and pulled it up off him in a single swipe.Jesus, he was strong.Holden felt skinny and puny next to him.Amos’s hand was down Holden’s pants and the grip on his cock was shimmery electric through the cloud of meds.Holden unzipped Amos’s coverall.  There was a bear underneath.His hand shot down into the depths of that fur and snapped back.

“That’s not funny, Amos.” 

“Not meant to be funny.It’s meant to be a dick.” 

Holden laughed.What else could he do?It wasn’t about who’s was bigger.Comparison was pointless.It was like comparing the Roci to the Cant.Yeah, they were both ships, but meant for different things. 

“The Roci’s cargo door isn’t the only thing that’s gonna’ need a refit when we get to Tycho Station.”  As soon as Holden said it he cringed.  Amos rolled his eyes.Yeah, it was a dumb joke.“Cut a guy some slack.I’m high as a kite and that thing is biblical.”

   Amos shucked the coveralls, carefully moving Holden’s leg first.It was one thing to feel that cock, it was another to see it.Heat raced along Holden’s skin and the hair on his arms stood up.He could feel his heartbeat in his head.Amos slipped Holden out of the loose pants he was wearing, as gentle as a nurse with his bandaged leg.He pulled a tube of what later proved to be personal lubricant out of a pocket in the coveralls and pushed everything to the floor. 

Holden let Amos take the lead.He let himself be taken.Something Naomi once said didn’t make room for this gentle hulk of a man who kissed him so tenderly on the lips, on the eyes, anywhere kisses are appreciated, which right now was everywhere.When he pressed into Holden, he gave him time to breathe through it.When he could finally move he never took his eyes off of Holden’s.He was with him the whole time, in every sense, constantly reading him, kissing him, holding him.Somewhere underneath the soft cloud of medicated nerve endings there was a hushed roar of discomfort, but it was at a distance.There and not there.Holden brought his good leg around Amos, urging him on. 

When the moment came, Amos nodded to warn him and pressed in deep.The jolt of it pushed Holden over into his own spasms that shot between them.Holden held him there, enjoying the sweet pain, the pressure of the man within and on top of him.Amos continued kissing him, letting him have what he wanted. 

Later, sweaty and panting, Amos toweled them both off. The big bear of a man curled around Holden, carefully placing his bad leg out of harm’s way, his huge cock now only a warm, soft presence against Holden’s backside, and they slept.

* * *

  **Amos**

Amos awoke to find Holden gone.Probably for the best.Save all the awkward explanations and _hey, man’s_ and _last night was just’s_. 

He dressed and headed for the bridge.Alex was strapped into the pilot’s chair.Amos took the nav seat. 

“Go get some rack time, man.I got it.”Amos tapped into the Roci’s flight systems, bringing the needed information up on his screens. 

“Alrightie, then,” Alex drawled.“I’ll probably get more sleep than you.”

Amos side-eyed him.“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Alex curled a smug grin.“Small ship, small crew, big man.”Alex clapped him on the shoulder as he departed the bridge.

“Yeah, I got yer big man right here,” Amos said more to himself than to Alex.

“So I’ve been told.Hope you were gentle with him,” Alex tossed back over his shoulder. 

He was gone before Amos could say anything. _People, man.Crazy_.  Still, he grinned to himself in satisfaction.  


	3. Repairs

** Naomi **

“ _Keting pashang to ando du, ówala?_ ”Naomi spat out as her calculations disappeared from the screen.

“Whoah, missy.You kiss your mamma with that mouth?”Alex swept new figures over to Naomi’s station.“Your numbers are _na khorocho_.”

Naomi scanned the data.He was right.“It just sounds stupid with your accent.”

“Be that as it may, darlin’, your numbers were wrong and you know it.”Alex looked over his shoulder.“You got something you wanna’ talk about?”

She said nothing.She fed the new data into the nav system with some minor adjustments she felt would increase efficiency.A few seconds later the panel locked, denying further access.A stream of Lang Belta flowed from her that would make the dirtiest, most unscrupulous rockhopper blush.

“Give me back the panel, Alex.”She tried to calm her voice but only managed tight annoyance.

“Oh, no.That’s not happening.”

“I know what I’m doing.”

“Yep, and that’s the problem.Naomi Nagata is the best damned engineer, pilot, and navigator I've ever met.  She doesn’t make stupid mistakes like these.Ever.And she doesn’t curse at me like that for no reason.So something’s up your ass and we can either have a friendly conversation and talk about it, or you can go do something else that doesn’t send us off to god knows where.I’d rather it be the former, so how ’bout you turn that chair around.”

Naomi shoved the panel away and crossed her arms, her mouth set in a bitter knot.

“Have it your way,” said Alex.“But you’re not touching the nav until you fix whatever’s eating you.”Alex rotated back to his screens.

“I think I just gave Amos permission to sleep with Jim.” _There.You wanna' talk?Chew on that_. 

Alex craned his head slowly back around, then the chair followed him.He laced his fingers on top of his slight paunch and said, “Huh.You don’t say.” 

Naomi looked at him out of the corner of her eye.“Yeah.”

“You _think_ you gave him permission?I’m having a hard time putting together a scenario where you only _think_ you did, so let’s go with the idea that you did.Why would you do that?”Alex was being carefully neutral in his tone.Naomi appreciated that he wasn’t being flip about it. 

“Because Amos asked.”Naomi wanted to roll up like a pillbug.Roll up and up into her hair until she popped out of existence.

“Okay.I would call that more _what_ happened.I’m looking for _why_ it happened.”

“He said he had to fix something between him and Jim.”

Alex said nothing for a while, and then, “So he didn’t come and say _I wanna have sex with Holden_ , then?”

“No.He just said he thought it might go that way.”

Alex mulled that over for several minutes, then, “You know Holden was real shook up when Amos got shot in the head.Like, _real_ shook up.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“And you know that the two’a them ain’t never been more than a bolt and a nut that just don’t wanna’ go together.”

“Yeah, thanks for the visual.”Tears spilled from Naomi’s eyes.“I know how to pick’um, huh?”She pantomimed Alex’s drawl for no particular reason.Ghosts of so many bad choices in the past haunted the air around her, but that was a story for a different time.These men weren’t those men.These men were imperfect and broken, but they weren’t the egomaniacs she had known and been drawn to like a moth to a flame. 

“I ain’t no expert in that department, because, as you’ll notice, I bunk alone, but I don’t think you did so bad this time around.Amos is an odd cod for sure, but I don’t think men are his thing.”

Naomi said, “There are things in Amos’s past…”

Alex cut her off.  “Which belong to Amos, and if he wants to tell me about it one day, then he will.Let me finish what I’m trying to say before I lose my train of thought.”He smiled, taking the sting out of the words.

“Okay.”

“It just don’t seem like his natural lean.He might be tryin’a square something with the Captain, and I think I know why, but Amos ain’t whole without you, Naomi, and you’re with Holden, and Holden’s a crazy sum’bitch.”Alex passed his tongue over the front of his teeth, behind his lips, thinking.“I don’t think Amos asked for himself.Maybe a little, but I think mostly he asked for you.And I think a part of you that you don’t want to listen to right now knows it’s true.”

There was a tenuous, gossamer strand of logic to Alex’s words.It became stronger as she thought about Amos.Amos, who knew how to bypass systems and conduits to keep a ship running.Amos, who knew how to patch a hull with a storage locker.Amos, who viewed the universe through a window of practicality and things he could do with his hands.She sniffed back the tears that wouldn’t stop.

“Mm-hm,” Alex softly hummed.“See, missy?Those two boys live for you.For different reasons, but, yeah.You’re the space princess every boy dreams of, only you don’t need no rescuing.But maybe they do.I mean, do you really see Holden leaving you for Amos?”

Alex had goofed his silly drawl into a parody of itself.Naomi laughed.“No.I don’t.”

“All right, then.I think you made a strange, difficult choice, and I think you made it with your heart, but your heart didn’t consult with your brain, which is why your head ain’t quite caught up yet.”

Naomi nodded softly.“What if this isn’t the only time?”she ventured.

“Sweetie, we’ve been through some crazy shit, and I got a feeling we ain’t even close to being done with it.If Amos has something Holden needs and Amos is with you and Holden is with you…”Alex shrugged a deep shrug.“The way it’s been, that part of the three of you was kinda’ broken.If this fixes it, would it really bother you?Would it hurt you?You have every right for the answer to be _yes_ , but would it really?”

Naomi thought silently.Alex’s words had cleared her mind.His words and the unspoken pining she heard in his voice.He _did_ bunk alone.   Amos would never hurt her. Maybe himself, but never her. And she poked at it and couldn’t find a way to begrudge Holden taking what Amos might offer. It was a different thing.  And maybe it would be good for both of them and leave her a little more room to breathe, to be herself and deal with other things that belonged to her alone. That would be good.  She pictured them together, big rough Amos, beautiful Holden, and it was okay.  They were hers and she was theirs, and inside of that was a seed of contentment and some peace.  

   She sighed and said,“In for a penny, in for a pound, I guess.”

“The way I hear tell, it’s more than a pound with Amos.”

Naomi gave him a look that said _you did not_. 

Alex returned a look that said _oh, yes I did_.He leaned back in his chair, his hands behind his head.“Word _does_ get around.But you know Amos.He’ll find a way to make things fit.”

And with that they both dissolved into _can’t breathe, piss-your-pants_ laughter.When it passed, Alex reactivated the nav control and they spent the rest of the shift in companionable silence.

* * *

 

Toward the end of the shift, Naomi unstrapped from the chair and gave Alex a thank-you kiss on the cheek, which he accepted by tipping a nonexistent hat.She went to get a bulb of tea in the mess hall.She wanted to be alone for a while with her thoughts before talking to Jim.When she passed Amos’s bunk, the confirmation of the room’s emptiness still confused a little, but it didn’t hurt.She’d never been in this kind of relationship.It would be something new to traverse.She found Prax in the mess hall searching aimlessly. 

“I’m going to make tea.You want some?”Naomi asked.

“Yes, please.I was looking for it and couldn’t find it.”

“Yeah, Jim hides it behind the coffee.Tea offends him.He thinks it’s not a proper drink.”

“Much better for you than coffee,” Prax replied. 

“You don’t have to sell me on that.”She brewed the tea and filled two bulbs, passing one to Prax.

“I heard some noises earlier, down the hall.I was scared maybe our ‘friend’ had come back,”Prax said, squeezing the bulb of tea gently.

Naomi realized what it must have been.Ship walls tended to resonate.“Nothing to worry about.Just some repairs.”


End file.
